Muniuni Weekend 2006
Sixteen unicyclists of different ages and abilities descended on the small
historic town of Chiltern in NE Victoria for the second MuniUni Weekend on the
20th and 21st May. Chiltern is surrounded by the 21,000 ha Chiltern/Mt Pilot
National Park and within the park there are 100s of kilometers of tracks
ranging from graded roads to difficult single tracks and from flat to steep
country. This terrain is my backyard, so I decided to hold this event to share
the terrain with some other unicyclists.
I held the event much later this year to work around the Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne, the Victorian and NSW school holidays and a late Easter. I was
concerned about the weather turning cold and wet but as it turned out, the
weather was cold but clear with fine sunny days. Excellent for riding; not too
hot and not too cold!
The participating riders ranged in ages from 11 to 62. The riders were Jake
Amos (Wallan), Madeline and Ed Bell (Kilmore), Barry and Nick Clearwater
(Oakley), Joshua Francavilla (Wallan), Laurence Harrison (Beechworth),
Christopher and Michael Heritage (Kilmore), Kevin McKay (Mooroolbark),
Siddharth Rajan (Frankston), Byron Roberts (Corowa), Albert Settle (Albury),
Callum Stafford (Benalla), Aubin Gill (Tasmania)
and myself. All riders had to be either members or
join the Australian Unicycling Society on the day for insurance purposes.
The riders were here to have a good time by facing the various challenges on
the program. The main idea or attraction was to give all riders something to
challenge their abilities. The program has some riding on the trails in the
Chiltern/Mt Pilot National Park, a street ride and a Saturday evening get
together at the local tavern for exchanging tails and to watch all the unicycle
videos currently available. There was also a small trials course at the meeting
place that kept the younger riders busy between events whilst the non trials
riders rode around the lake or just compared unicycles and had a chat.
The aim of the weekend was for participation and not for competition; however
there seemed to be some friendly competition between participants ranging from
the fastest up and fastest down some pretty rough hills.
The bush riding included natural trials, uphill rides, down hill rides and
cross country rides on varying terrain from smooth dirt roads to technical
single tracks. The nature of the tracks in the Chiltern/Mt Pilot National Park
allows for riders to ride in groups but find varying terrain within meters of
each other. The riders can generally choose the complexity of terrain. The
highlight of Saturday afternoon was riding down Pipeline Track. Any one who
makes it all the way down can call themselves a Pipeline Master. I will compile
a list of riders who have achieved this and post it on my site. Invariably the
younger riders find it easy whilst the older riders tend to chicken out at a
particularly steep pinch. Some of the (younger) masters repeated the feat with
one rider doing it 5 times flat out.
The terrain is rated at challenging (on a unicycle) but not extreme. There are
no major drops or jumps, and, as the organiser, I feel happy about that from a
safety point of view.
The riders who turned up were talented, keen and enthusiastic and I appreciated
them for making the effort and making a great weekend happen. I am keen to
organise the 2007 MuniUni.
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